The World Bank’s 2020 Global Gas Flaring Tracker, a global and independent indicator of gas flaring, found that from 2019 to 2020, oil production declined by 8 percent, while gas flaring dropped by 5 percent. Seven countries continue to light up the global map, year after year: Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela, and Nigeria have been the largest flaring countries for nine years running, since the first satellite was launched in 2012. While these seven countries have together produced some 40 percent of the world’s oil each year, they have also accounted for roughly two-thirds (65 percent) of global gas flaring. This trend is indicative of ongoing, though differing, challenges facing these countries.

This report presents GGFR’s new metric, the Imported Flare Gas (IFG) Index, which identifies how countries importing crude oil are exposed to gas flaring. Preliminary results from the IFG Index show that many large crude oil-importing developed countries, such as Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, and Italy are exposed to gas flaring, since they are importing crude oil from countries that flare large volumes of associated gas, such as Russia, Nigeria, Algeria, Iraq and Libya. The IFG Index also tells the story of shared responsibility – countries that import oil also have a role to play in ending this industry practice.